Objective
Every year, billions of birds cover long distances to migrate between breeding areas and favourable wintering grounds. During migratory flights, birds almost exclusively rely on fat stores as energy source. Avian migration typically involves an alternation between long, exhausting flights and stopover periods to rest and refuel, with consequent changes in foraging behaviour and metabolism. We are just starting to understand the mechanisms regulating these transitions. The hormone ghrelin, produced by the gastrointestinal tract, was recently shown to play a key role in the control of locomotor activity and food intake during migratory stopovers in captive birds.
This project aims at identifying how ghrelin affects endurance performance, fuel metabolism, and decision-making in migrating birds. We will address these questions with an innovative approach that combines field and laboratory experiments and make use of state-of-the-art methods and facilities, including a wind tunnel and an automated radio-tracking system. Specifically, we will simulate migratory flights in the wind tunnel to investigate how food deprivation and high-intensity exercise affect ghrelin levels, and in turn how the manipulation of ghrelin levels leads to changes in fuel metabolism. Further, we will radio-track wild migrating birds that had been given exogenous ghrelin to study how the interaction between the hormone and the physiological condition controls actual migratory behaviour. Our findings will greatly expand our current understanding of the physiological adaptations for long-distance migration and provide new insights into the function of ghrelin in controlling energy homeostasis and lipid metabolism in vertebrates.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology ornithology
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering aircraft
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules lipids
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels
- medical and health sciences basic medicine physiology homeostasis
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF-GF - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2017
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1210 Wien
Austria
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.